Brentford FC v Barnsley FC - Tactical Preview
Griffin Park 7.30pm 22/07/2020
Up at Oakwell they gave Brentford one hell of a scare as Thomas Frank rolled out his new 433 system for the first time. We’re going to miss Barnsley if they go.
Cauley Woodrow fancied spoiling the tactical party and launched a rocket from distance in the first minute beyond Raya before the game had any chance to settle. What followed was liquid football, in the rain too, as Watkins went on to score a hat trick and Brentford lit the fire that was to be the rest of the season. Free from the shackles of 343, the campaign assault was on its way.
And so we arrive at the final hour of regulation time. Barnsley have been through a lot since the reverse match, their Championship status now hanging by a thread. They need to win now, like Brentford, and they need others to lose, like Brentford too.
There's a wonderful piece of symmetry to this end point in that no matter how well either side plays or good a result they manage to muster, it may be entirely futile.
Barnsley arrive at Griffin Park in relatively good form. Apart from the anomaly of a 4-0 defeat to Stoke City, post lockdown football has shown there are defensive positives to be drawn from Strubers’ system. His side have kept five clean sheets since lockdown football, yes five, which is not bad at all when you're viewed as cannon fodder for the rest of the league.
Another intricately coached side revelling in the serenity that is empty stadia, perhaps.
We know that Struber has moved to a 343 system, similar to the one Brentford used to play. There’s more of an effort to keep two forward players central but many other characteristics remain the same. They like to pass for starters. They’ve only been outpassed by Leeds in recent matches and a good tussle with Paul Cook's impressive Wigan side saw them eased into a draw as they were unable to capitalise on a late red card.
The recent narrow loss to Leeds saw them revert back to a 4312 system which was a rollback and similar to the setups we saw many times under Stendel. It nearly worked as Barnsley created the best shots of the match, generating a higher expected goals total than the league's best side. Bielsa's weakened team required a cruel own goal from Sollbauer to seal the win.
So what else are Barnsley about?
Well they’re a pressing machine for starters. Only Leeds allow less passes against them before a defensive action according to our friends at Wyscout.
They're a flexible attacking side, extra flexible, flooded with good technical young players all able to rotate positions well and unpick the opposition. A fascinating project for somebody with time on their hands and a copy of a famous management simulator would be to give them the Brentford backline for a season and see them contest promotion.
Because that's what it comes down to with Barnsley. Under Stendel they were open. Far too open. Committed to attack, their work in the defensive phase or how easily they were caught upfield when they’d turnover the ball was tiring and it didn't look like improving. A young team given the licence to express themselves on the ball without the necessary solidity to protect a developing back four comes with consequences.
Add to this the worst side when looking at expected goals when defending set pieces you can see why the vibrancy in attack was never going to be enough. Non-penalty expected goals has them comfortably hovering around mid-table, whereas they’ve recorded just 47 actual goals, which is one goal above the league's lowest scorers Middlesbrough. Barnsley, in underlying terms, have been doing easily enough in attack to keep them up.
An inefficiency in front of goal added to a defensive system that took until football resumed after an international lockdown has doubled down on them to need favours from others and a win over Brentford to avoid relegation. So there’s your macro problems, without needing to go into the tactical elements that have made them so fun to watch. Struber has taken an already effective attacking team and got them to defend better with a clever pressing and counterpressing system. The trouble is it’s all likely to be too late.
Last time out their 343 system came up trumps against an unusual Forest shape.
Lamouchi underestimated his opponent and thought he could play an experimental system against the league's bottom dwellers. He needed to do more research. The game was a trouncing as an exceptionally coached Barnsley side played out from the back and through the thirds with one touch lay-offs beyond an ambling Watson and Sow right from the first minute. It took until the 93rd to find a winner but it always felt like coming. Counter pressing, regaining the ball high, overloading the wings and not allowing Forest players a moment's reprieve, only one side looked like it was pushing for promotion.
Conversely for Brentford, they need to pick themselves up off the canvas. A 1-0 defeat to Stoke felt like a surprise and an inevitability rolled into one.
Our Tactical Review will go into the game we saw as Brentford failed to record a win after a superb 8 victories in a row. Losing matches was a distant memory until the Bees were tactically maneuvered into defeat on Saturday at the Bet365.
Barnsley, too, can flex into a back 5, as Stoke spent large parts of the match, but don't tend to. Their back 3 system is used with the main intention of staying or pushing high up the field, squeezing the attacking section of the pitch. Grabban and Da costa were not feared in the space behind or 1v1 as Barnsley regularly went man for man or had a third player back to control the Forest pair who could only muster a single shot each across the 90 minutes.
Attacking for Barnsley is poetry and there's an asymmetrical feel to them going forward down their left hand side as Ritzmaier, Styles, Chaplin, Mowatt and Thomas all combine at various stages to overload that side, leaving the right players, Brown or Woodrow the space to attack 1v1 or finish first time. If selected Dalsgaard and Norgaard usually strong on this side will need small gaps between themselves and the right winger if it is to be Mbeumo. Struber must be ruing his luck as dangerous Portugeuse attacker Simoes damaged ligaments against Wigan and will also miss this game which would likely have been his last for The Tykes knowing the owners, their strategy and modus operandi.
They have the youngest squad in the league by some margin which can only hold them in good stead for the future as parachute payments run out and rival football league teams struggle to rid aging players in a deflated transfer market.
On the final day of the season Brentford will look after the ball far better than a Forest side who treat it like a hot potato. Barnsley found the long balls to Grabban easy to defend against, player rotations and players with stronger 1v1 ability will ask a different kind of question. Pressing in numbers works effectively against a side who don’t enjoy possession but riskier against a side drilled to play through this type of pressure.
Thomas Frank has selection options and could alter the starting lineup. With potentially three games to go if playoffs is the route this 90 minutes goes down, Mbeumo and Jensen may get a chance to refresh their levels as Marcondes continues to elevate himself into a must start player.
We may see a change in shape too as the head coach tries to tweak the system to fit the strengths of Canos into the side.
Having final day destiny snatched out of your hands is somewhat cruel in a game filled with disappointment for so many teams. Barnsley will not be taken for granted on Wednesday as they look to cling on to their Championship status with a win against a side who know that only a win will do to avoid the agony that still could be the playoffs.